Steam No Longer Accepts Bitcoin Payments

Posted 12th December 2017 By: Kyle-Tipify Staff

Online video distribution website, Valve, decided to stop accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment for its products, according to an announcement on its website. Steam stated their reason behind not continuing to support the cryptocurrency because of its “high fees and volatility in the value of Bitcoin.”

Bitcoin and Steam started

Steam started accepting Bitcoin back in April 2016 after partnering with Bitpay—a payment service solely for Bitcoin—hopefully targeting countries where traditional payment options aren’t available. When Bitcoin started—or when it wasn’t as prevalent as it is now—fees ranged from around $0.20 and fraud among credit cards were easily avoided. It’s worth noting that confirmations were quicker back then as opposed to today’s traffic within the network. Regardless of that, Bitcoin remains one of the fastest ways to send and receive payments from any part of the world.

“In the past few months we’ve seen an increase in the volatility in the value of Bitcoin and a significant increase in the fees to process transactions on the Bitcoin network—[which] have skyrocketed this year, topping out at close to $20 a transaction last week (compared to roughly $0.20 when we initially enabled Bitcoin).” Valve said in the blog post.

Valve noted the volatility of Bitcoin has become unsustainable over the past months. “The value of Bitcoin is only guaranteed for a certain period of time so if the transaction doesn’t complete within that window of time, then the amount of Bitcoin needed to cover the transaction can change.” Valve also stated.

Bitcoin’s future with Steam

On a lighter note, Valve is not totally disregarding Bitcoin as a mode of payment. They are still in the process of reconsidering whether Bitcoin will turn into a more viable payment method for their needs in the future. Hence, there’s no need for you Bitcoin users out there to lose hope. Since the cryptocurrency is still trying to find its ropes with Steam, there’s still a possibility for you to be able to transact with the platform using the digital currency. In the meantime, you can either wait for your bitcoins to further grow in price or use it on other Bitcoin-accepting sites.

Other Bitcoin-accepting services

Fortunately, Steam is not the only esports-related gaming service that caters to crypto users. There are other websites that do, especially when it comes to esports betting. Bitcoin betting can open up endless possibilities for esports lovers who love to place wagers on esports matches and at the same time cut transaction times to a bare minimum. There will be no more waiting around for transactions to complete. Also, with its cheap transaction fees, users get the most out of their hard-earned bitcoins. For the best Bitcoin betting experiences, do check out NitrogenSports and other Bitcoin-accepting brands published in our betting page.